Guild Wars-Novel

Chapter 223 - Crafting Spree 3

Bang! Bang!

Draco pounded the poor ingot mercilessly, allowing it to be shaped according to his will. His mini mana shield became battered under the continuous backlash from his hammering, but the fellow seemed unbothered!

His vicious expression as he vented out his grievances for past sufferings made Hikari and Eva share a look, but they didn’t say anything.

It seemed like Draco had really suffered when he crafted earlier, even though he had Hikari’s healing.

But that should be obvious! Was Draco a machine that could resist the sheer horror of having his arm either blasted to smithereens, set ablaze, or frozen into an ice block?

He had only been able to go on thanks to the Body of Godliness. However, that only took away his ability to feel pain, it didn’t stop the psychological effect of having one’s arm damaged so heavily.

Not only that, but the Body of Godliness’ touch deactivation was not infallible. A person who could not feel pain would not fear death, but if his arm shattered, he would certainly be able to tell that his arm shattered.

And that feeling of loss, that inability to move a part of one’s body like it wasn’t there anymore... that was truly something else.

Now, Draco worked on the Epic ingot stately, using its malleable characteristic to turn it into a spear. A spear that could bend while retaining its sharpness was the best for dynamic lancers.

One shouldn’t use Sanji as a yardstick to measure other lancers, Sanji was a bottom tier noob who was being carried. The other Lancers in Umbra all had some good skill, and Draco even knew some in the top 20 who were absolutely amazing.

Not only that, but he was making this item for the Player Auction, so he had no particular buyer in mind. As such, he could be more liberal with its crafting style and its Enchantments.

Hikari sat down silently, simply opting to watch Draco as he worked. Even though she couldn’t help him, she found that she was largely happier this way.

Even though she felt accomplishment in helping Draco craft, that was at the cost of him suffering such hellish pain, which was something she didn’t want to see or hear.

So even if she could only sit on the sidelines and watch, she was perfectly content.

Eva saw Hikari’s quiet acceptance and brushed her hair lovingly. Hikari’s lips curled up in happiness and she lay in Eva’s embrace.

If one didn’t know any better, one would think that Hikari and Eva were twin sisters who loved each other dearly.

Truthfully, their beauty was somewhat alike now that Hikari’s metamorphosis had occurred. Her face lost its roundness and became more angular like Eva, while her gentle eyes had become sharp and penetrating.

They were both of the same height and had the same kind of creamy, unblemished skin that looked like it glowed in the sunlight.

Only their body proportions, hairstyles, and demeanors separated them, other than - of course - their hair and eye color.

Eva’s hair was bright green while her eyes were pitch-black, like the darkest abyss, hence the nickname ’Riveting Night’.

Hikari’s hair was pure white and flowed down to her waist, her eyes a cyan color while she had a similarly colored horn protruding from her forehead.

Draco saw their coziness from the corner of his eye and felt gratified. After all, he knew how sharp Eva was, and he had no worries with her in his life.

Eva smiled. Of course, she recognized the value of Hikari, and she placed far more importance in Hikari compared to Draco’s other digital women.

This was simply because Hikari was a similar being to her in every way. They both dealt with Light-based energy - Light Energy is a subset of Creation Energy - and they were both entities that resonated deeply with Draco’s bloodline.

Eva’s claim was naturally stronger since she was Draco’s predestined other half. It was a position no one could take from Eva and vice versa.

However, Hikari was the next closest thing to that. Of course, ANY White Dragoness could have taken Hikari’s spot, while there was only one Eva in this universe.

Still, Hikari was crucial. Out of them all, Hikari was the only one Eva seriously doted and placed importance on. If it was even possible, she would bring Hikari to the real world.

As for Roma, Zaine, and whoever came next... well, they should stay in the game world, as this was where they belonged. This was something Eva wouldn’t budge on, and Draco would naturally heed her opinion on this matter.

Draco finished shaping the Epic ingot into the spear, and it looked quite impressive. It gleamed in a silvery-chromium color, and one could easily see their reflection on its shaft.

As for the runes, Draco didn’t want to make something too overpowered like what he made for Jada and Jade. After all, these items would be sold to other powers, who could become enemies in the foreseeable future.

They only largely left Draco alone because, for the time being, he was a measly Rank 1 fellow and he had Richmond, a Titled God, at his back. If he reached the higher Ranks, the excuse of ’how can you bully the weak’ would lose its power.

One should remember, it was hard for Rank 7 entities to die unless Destruction Energy in high quantities and qualities were used. Most of the time, it would just be a slugfest that would last months.

As such, no one was scared of being killed by Richmond. He couldn’t easily kill them and they certainly could not even begin to try and kill him.

However, Richmond had no descendants or faction, being a free bird while the majority of the Rank 7 powers had established their own factions.

If they went too far, Richmond could destroy their lineages and they could only cry.

As for the other Rank 7 free birds who were like Richmond, they wouldn’t offend him for Draco.

After all, the lad displayed extreme talent. The world wasn’t peaceful since the Great War that occurred every millennium was around the corner, and they needed all the help they could get.

The Immortal Adventurers were greatly appreciated because they could serve as the perfect kamikaze troops. They couldn’t die permanently, so why hold back?

Many NPC lives could be saved this way and this had been what occurred in the previous timeline. They had coerced them by presenting great incentives to participate in the Great War, allowing players to suffer through hellish battles while they hid their people away.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Draco chose to use the Eternal Growth rune for the first passive. As for the second one, he chose a more humane enchantment which was a penetration boost for piercing attacks.

For the active, he chose an enchantment that allowed the wielder to make hundreds of thrusts in one minute, at the cost of a lot of stamina and accuracy. The cooldown was a bit long too, but the power output was good.

Fueling the enchantments was another issue, as he had sent over 90% of this Aether Crystals to be sold at the Divine Auction, leaving only a few High-Grade and all his Top-Grade ones in hand.

However, more than a week had passed since the last Divine Auction! Draco had produced many Medium-Grade and a few High-Grade Aether Crystals in this time.

He only needed 4 Medium-Grade Aether Crystals to fill all three enchantments, with the lion’s share going to the Eternal Growth runes.

After that, he used his enhanced mind and will to easily push the enchantments onto the spear. What required him to burst blood vessels in his eyes was now a walk in the park.

The disparity made Draco understand that whether it was his talent, his Control, or whatever other power he had, nothing could come close to his bloodline.

It was something that would allow him to partake in the impossible in the real world, much less in a game world. Its advantages were too many, and most of its disadvantages were either curbed by his experiences in his past life or his relationship with the progenitor.

Just 30% in the Dark Angel Inheritance made him possess the ability to create Legendary Enchantments and place them onto Epic weapons with ease. If he had a Legendary weapon on the anvil, it would be far easier to place a Legendary Enchantment onto it.

This realization made him take a deep breath. Should he enter the Master Rank of Blacksmithing and raise Mjolnir to the Legendary Rank, he could probably start mass-producing Legendary items without the need for leveling up, assuming the backlash wasn’t that bad.

Draco put his thoughts aside and inspected the spear he had made. It now glowed with a chilling light, and Draco could help but grip his neck.

It felt like the spear would pierce through his gullet if he took his eyes off it for one second, and that was a truly chilling feeling.

Naturally, there was a phenomenon when the spear was completed, but Draco paid it no mind, just like how he ignored the ones from Jada and Jade’s wands.

｢Unnamed – Spear

Rank: Semi-Legendary

Durability: 750,000/750,000

Effects:

Passive 1 – Eternal Growth: The user can sacrifice experience points to grow this item’s rating.

Passive 2 – Penetration: Every piercing attack by this weapon deals 150% piercing damage and ignores 30% of the target’s physical defense and resistance.

Active 1 – Sonic Thrust: Send out 150 thrusts of your spear within 1 minute that deal 30% extra damage but have 70% less accuracy and drain 20% more stamina each. Cooldown: 3 days.

Further abilities can be unlocked by sacrificing experience points. 0% of 15,000% needed to upgrade to Legendary Rank｣

Draco frowned a little. The first passive was fine and the second one was pretty good but not as good as the ones he had made for Eva, specifically her Chaotic Blades.

The active skill though, was underwhelming. 150 thrusts per second with 30% extra damage was OP, especially since the second passive would boost it further.

Not even 20 of the thrusts would need to hit in order to kill a Sergeant Rank monsters, and 70 could maybe kill a Captain Rank, depending on the user.

Still, 70% less accuracy? What a wretched penalty! This made the active skill only slightly better than an Epic one!

70% accuracy here didn’t mean that 1/3 of the strikes were sure to hit. It didn’t work in the same manner as the percentages for crafting success or the like.

It was more like the mechanic that decided Rina’s chances of activating the Queen of Death title.

In other words, each and every single one of those 150 thrusts had an individual calculation based on this number as to the chance of landing a hit.

To give a good imagery, it was like a slider bar was activated with each thrust, where the center had a green portion, the medians had yellow and the edges were red.

A dial was bouncing back and forth the slider and should it land on green, that signaled a hit. Yellow meant a slight graze while red meant a straight miss.

In this case, the slider would have a very small portion of green while a slightly bigger portion was yellow and the rest red. The dial also selected randomly, and unless one was truly skilled, they couldn’t influence it much.

And this would occur with every thrust, meaning that there was a chance that every thrust could miss!

Of course, there was also a chance that every single one could hit, but one would need to be a Luckmancer, and those fellows couldn’t use such weapons anyway.

｢Congratulations on creating new weapon: Unnamed (Spear) (Semi-Legendary)

Rewards:

500% Exp

500% Tradeskill Exp

5,000 gold

500 reputation with the Tradeskill Association｣

Draco was used to this particular message, so he ignored it. After all, this wasn’t the only item he was going to craft tonight. Working on this one without the need to heal himself or take breaks meant that only 3 hours had passed.

He decided to leave the spear unnamed. The future buyer could name it exclusively, and that would raise the value of this weapon.

Draco smiled and passed the spear over to the girls, who inspected it with interest, especially the White Dragoness.

Draco moved onto the next perfect ingot he had made that was of the same element. He began hammering again after resetting his mini mana shield. He was shocked as to how easy it was to maintain it, but just shrugged it off.

As the oriental cultivators always say: ’The foundation is the most important aspect of the power one wields’. Draco’s foundation was fortified by his bloodline, making his external powers like subjective magic stronger.

This new weapon was slowly shaped into a shield, as Draco hammered it flat and then used his hands to forcibly bend it into a curve.

Thanks to the material’s malleability, this was an easy job. Of course, to bend metal, whether it was Epic rank or Common, wasn’t something just anyone could do.

Only a beast like Draco who had activated his Horned Demon Inheritance by such a large margin could be accounted among those who could. His raw strength might not match up to Local Lord, but it was certainly there.

After doing so, Draco added some finishing touches, but left no flairs on the design. Since he made the Dragorugio set, he hadn’t bothered with stuff like that, since the aether-imbued enchantments would redesign the weapon according to the phenomena that occurred.

Draco also chose some useful enchantments for the shield. The first was the same old Eternal Growth, the second passive was called ’Bounce Back’ and the active skill was ’Fortification’.

These simple enchantments drank quite a bit of Aetheric Energy, but Draco knew that shields had to be outstanding because their role was far too crucial in battle.

As such, 6 Medium-grade Aether Crystals went down the drain, but Draco wasn’t worried, he had gained many more over the past 10 days, so he had quite a bit to spend.

After the enchantments were placed onto the shield, Draco inspected this one as well.

｢Unnamed – Shield

Rank: Semi-Legendary

Durability: 750,000/750,000

Effects:

Passive 1 – Eternal Growth: The user can sacrifice experience points to grow this item’s rating.

Passive 2 – Bounce Back: Any attack against this shield is unable to cause the wielder to flinch or feel any force, instead pushing back the enemy with every strike onto it.

Active 1 – Fortification: Grant the <Fortified> status to every ally within 3 miles, allowing them to resist 20% physical and magical damage for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 6 hours.

Further abilities can be unlocked by sacrificing experience points. 0% of 15,000% needed to upgrade to Legendary Rank｣

The shield made Draco smile. It was truly very good and would be one of the eye-catching items during the auction.

The second passive would prove extremely useful against larger/stronger enemies. For example, if one was fighting a Dragon, they would be unmoved even if the megaton Dragon used its claws to thwack the shield.

The natural outcome should be that they would be blasted off into the sunset, yet thanks to the shield, they would stand firm. Instead, it would be the Dragon who would take a few steps back from recoil, with a feeling as if it had tried to punch the earth’s core.

Even if it took no damage from this, it would be a supreme disruptor for the enemy’s combat flow.

One would take a swing and hit the shield with a resounding bam sound. However, their sword/hammer/claw would be flung away and they would have to initiate a new attack only to suffer the same fate.

How frustrating would that be? It would be supremely annoying and would make one stifled deep down.

As for the active skill, it was an AOE buff, meaning that everyone within range would benefit from it as long as the system discerned that they were allies.

All-in-all, it was a good shield.

｢Congratulations on creating new weapon: Unnamed (Shield) (Semi-Legendary)

Rewards:

500% Exp

500% Tradeskill Exp

5,000 gold

500 reputation with the Tradeskill Association｣

The token reward was still there, so Draco couldn’t say much. He then sent over the shield to his two ’appraisers’ and let them ’ooh’ and ’ahh’ over its design, especially after the phenomena.

Draco then went on to craft many more Semi-Legendary items during the next four days. Well, ’many’ was a bit of an exaggeration.

He only made about 7 extra items, even though he had made the first two within a few hours. This was because had had to put in a lot of time every day to practice his subjective magic and Bloodline Techniques.

In that regard, Draco made very slow progress. Activating his bloodline and having it strengthen his Control and subjective magic gave him a huge leap and that was hard to surpass with effort alone.

It was certainly possible, but a few days of training wouldn’t realize such a thing.

Another 6 days passed which made for a total of 10 days.

There were 53 days until the Player Auction.

Not only that, but the Dragon Soul had 35 days to hatching, while after some calculation, Draco realized that Roma would be giving birth in about five days while Zaine’s due date should be in 10 days.

As such, he directly sent out an order through his new head maid to Vita City State, for the midwives to accommodate Roma and Zaine to the highest degree.

Everything about their birth should be smooth and pain-free. Draco wanted his firstborns in the world of Boundless to be healthy and free of any weakness.

As for the other maids turned concubines including Verita, they would take much longer. Theirs would probably be after the Player Auction, so Draco didn’t have to worry about that.

He also had to find time to seed all the slaves Eva had bought a while back, as time was of the essence. With each new power and each growth Draco made, the amount of time he would spend in the Western Fantasy world diminished greatly.

Most importantly, the various players of Umbra would be arriving soon in the real world, so he had to make plans for that.

Sigh, so much to do and so little time...